Knights go down to Sharks by two points | Photos Newcastle v Cronulla, June 21, 2015, Hunter Stadium: Knights start off strong against the Sharks but go down 30-28 to continue their losing streak. Picture: Ryan Osland

TweetFacebookNEWCASTLE is in danger of collecting a second footballing wooden spoon in the same year after the Knights slumped to their fourth successive defeat -and ninth loss in 10 games -at Hunter Stadium on Sunday.

The 30-28 defeat by Cronulla, after Newcastle twice led by 10 points, left the Knights in 15th position,equal last with Parramatta and Manly.

The Sea Eagles occupy the bottom rung of the ladder because of an inferior points differential.

Manly have won only four games to Newcastle’s five, and are level on points courtesy of an extra bye, but would appear capable of finishing the season more strongly than the Knights.

Newcastle already has one wooden spoon in its possession for 2015, after the Jets finished last in the recently finished A-League campaign.

The unthinkable prospect of the Knights emulating their round-ball counterparts now seems a realistic outcome.

Unbeaten competition leaders after four rounds, the Knights need a miracle to reach the finals.

With 10 games to play, including some tough away trips, they would need at least seven wins.

Sunday’s win lifted Cronulla, who were without skipper Paul Gallen, from 10th to ninth on the ladder.

Newcastle led 16-6 late in the first half but suffered a setback when they conceded a try seconds before the interval.

Newcastle skipper Kurt Gidley kicked two penalty goal in the opening seven minutes, before the Sharks equalised when winger Valentine Holmes got outside his opposite number, James McManus, to cross in the corner.

Cronulla nudged 6-4 ahead in the 21st minute when Knights prop Kade Snowden was penalised and placed on report for a high tackle on Sharks forward Matt Prior.

GORDONreturned to a more conventional mode of winning on Saturday, putting in a four-quarterperformance to annihilate Daylesford by 168 points on its home patch.

It was the Bulldogs that drew first blood via Matt Bolton from directly in front and Pat Rowe kept the visitors in touch with a clever snap mid-way through the first term.

From then on, however, the Gordon juggernaut began to roll, piling on the next 17 majors before Rowe added his second deep in the third term.

For the Eagles, in a very even performance, Chris McGuigan booted six goals, Ash Munari and Steve Patterson set up countless attacks and Tye Murphy was imperious in the centre of the ground. Adam Toohey booted four goals from all points of the compass, while Matt Raworth and Luke Gunnell continued their good form.

The Doggies were best served by defenders Ben Cooper, Jason Mackley and the indomitable Jesse Brown,who harassed, tackled and smothered all the way to the very end.

This story Administrator ready to work first appeared on Nanjing Night Net.

Poignant date: Missing toddler William Tyrrell would be four on Friday. Photo: SuppliedThe father of murdered Queensland teenagerDaniel Morcombe​ fears William Tyrrell, who would be four on Friday, won’t be found alive.

Speaking ahead of the poignant date Bruce Morcombe,father of 13-year-old Daniel, who was abducted and murdered on the Sunshine Coast in 2003,said familymembers would be at different stages of acceptance of William’s fate and that special dates such as birthdays would be “incredibly upsetting”.

MrMorcombesaid some in the family would be still hoping William is alive, some might be thinking that, with every day passing, thatis less likely and some would believe that the search was now for William’s remains.

“This can cause some families to fracture,” he said

“Everyone is hopeful but logic suggests statistically, as the months go by,he is not coming home.We strongly want a good news story to come out of this. We have been there and genuinely hope he will be found alive. I am sure the police are working incredibly hard to find the answers but with no sightings and no physical evidence, it is looking very grim for sure. Miracles do happen. Let’s hope there’s one here.”

“There are all these milestones. You just don’t forget. The 100-days anniversary or the 12-month anniversary are incredibly tough. We tried to be positive and tried to reactivate the investigation by appealing to the public for more information.”

Mr Morcombewas speaking the day after lawyers for Brett Peter Cowan, who was found guilty of the abduction and murder of Daniel,lodged an application for leave to appeal against his conviction.

In a separate development on Friday, whitegoods repairmanBill Spedding, repeatedly questioned over the disappearance of William Tyrrell, and named as a person of interest,was granted bail on charges of historical child sex offences.

Mr Spedding, 63, was arrestedin April and charged with unrelated child abuse offences and at a previous hearing his lawyer, Robert Hoyles, told the courtroom his client would deny the charges “until his final breath”.

Mr Morcombe​ and his wife, who have set up the Daniel Morcombe Foundation, tirelessly visit schools to get across their message to youngsters torecognise danger, react by getting themselvesto a safe place and then reporting it.

He said that they had taken their message toHerons Creek Public School,just five kilometres from where Daniel disappearedfrom his grandmother’s home in September, 12 months previously.

He also said that the family, from his experience, would be likely to be receiving distracting information from psychics.

“Personally, we found it quite distressing, a fair amount of it was bizarre and offbeat. I don’t place any amount of faith in psychic information. On our taskforce, it was an incredible distraction. They would say there’s a shed or a water tank…we had dozens or hundreds of leads and logic suggests that William’s case is similar to Daniel’s,” Mr Morcombe said.

“You can’t ignore them just in case it is a disguised confession, someone trying to get it off their chest and that they really do know something.”

From hisexperience there would be mountains of information coming infrom the community including timelines of where people were at the time andvehicles of interest.

“An important role is capturing data from CCTV at local service stations andATMs,which may be incredibly useful when the noose is drawn more tightly around a person of interest;it can perhaps break an alibi,” Mr Morcombe said. “If they can prove a vehiclewas at a particular place, that sort of informationcan solve a case.”

In a message to the Tyrrell family, he added:”Remain positive, that’s all you can do. The police will be working hard; they want to solve it as well. They, I am sure, go to work not filling in the hours; they go to work to find the answers.”

NSW Police declined to comment on the progress of the investigation.

Free education resources for schools can be downloaded from the Daniel Morcombe Foundation website.